MARK HATELEY reckons Jermain Defoe has proven why bringing him to Ibrox in January was a ‘no-brainer’.
The striker has made the most of his chance to impress in recent weeks and netted his eighth goal for Rangers to clinch victory over Hibernian on Sunday.
Boss Steven Gerrard has an arrangement in place to keep Defoe on loan from Bournemouth until the end of next season.
And Gers legend Hateley has been impressed with the Englishman so far this term.
Hateley said: “Jermain is class, on and off the field. I take you back to the Hearts game and there was criticism of John Souttar’s performance. But you have to look at what Jermain does, even when he is not touching the ball.
“Look at the positions he takes up and the amount of thinking he makes defenders do.
READ MORE: Has Defoe moved ahead of Morelos in the Ibrox pecking order?
“Souttar would normally be playing against someone that will just play up against him physically but being against someone like Jermain makes you think ‘if I make half a mistake here, he is in behind me and he has a shot on target and he will score a goal.’
“So that goes through your mind and it leads to self doubt. Jermain is already on top of it and, as he has proven on many occasions, he will get in behind you, hit the target and score goals.
“I think he has looked after himself very, very well and he hasn’t had any great injury lay-offs, which is good.
“He is an all-round good character, he is chirpy. But he is professional, he understands the game of football very well. He has moved around different clubs, different environments, played in America. He ticks all the boxes, for me. It was a no-brainer bringing him in and he has shown why.”
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